Kent, my instructor used the hours teaching to get him his hours, and if I recall correctly, it was very much just an hours in the seat game. You needed hours, and you only climbed the ladder by putting seat time in. He graduated from Emory Riddle college, and he was having to teach people like me to get his hours up enough to be able for anyone to even consider hiring him. When they did, it was a pretty low level job in the flight world. Then you just had to do so much time in that mode until anyone would consider you for the next step up. It wasn't like you got the certifications and there were job openings available. You really had to climb the ladder and it was a pretty lengthy process. I would guess you wouldn't even think of going from not flying to flying corporate jets in less than 10 years time, but that's just my personal gut feeling. I might be completely wrong on that, but I do know he was an excellent pilot with a major feather in his cap for where he was educated in flight, and he was still schleping people like me around, trying to keep me from killing myself. I think the day he crossed his milestone in hours for that next step up the ladder, he quit. He moved into flying cargo in a smaller plane, that wasn't a jet.

You can do it, it's just a long, slow process.